Tuesday, December 31, 2013

There
are those moments in life when we expect one thing and get another. It is amazing to see how the mind works. So often we perceive things with our eyes that
can be not true at all. My best friend
Steve and I faced this situation in college. When I first heard about him it
was through girls. I heard their stories
of how cool he was. When I saw him in
his tech vest standing outside of chapel, my first impression was that he
thought he was super cool. When I found
out he played football and the tuba, I quickly drew many other conclusions
about him. I never gave him a fair shot.
Then to top it all off he decided to be
pre-seminary, meaning for some reason he
thought it would be cool to be a pastor. It was like he just wanted to jump on any
bandwagon he could find--football, orchestra, and even a pastoral calling. At the time, we had a very personable pre-seminary
director, who seemed to draw people in. But
in a case like Steve’s, I was not buying it. Eventually we both headed for the pre-sem retreat,
and there we began to get to know each other. I soon learned that he was passionate about the
same music and artists that I liked. He
was a deep thinker and studiously contemplated many things in life. Our friendship took off when I took the time
to see past my first impressions of him, and not rely on misconceptions built
on stereotypes. By the time I left
college he was my best friend.Our
friendship still revolves around many foundational issues in our lives, and has
taken on several new topics.

You never really expect to talk
about misconceptions in Scripture. But there
are several historical discrepancies in the Epiphany account, which cover up the
true meaning of what is really going on.Don’t you think if God’s Word described someone as a wise man, it would
be Solomon? Don’t you think if these men
were truly wise men they wouldn’t have been so easily tricked by the king? And who ever said there were three of them? Maybe the hardest one to accept--because it
takes some cultural knowledge--wouldn’t the wise men, kings, magi, know what gifts
to bring Jesus? All of these
misconceptions distract us from understanding why they came to see Jesus, which
totally confuses the meaning of Epiphany. I like the definition of Epiphany as a striking appearance, because it properly
conveys the power of this story. These
men typically served kings, wrote horoscopes (well, the versions written back
then), and were not considered wise at all. They were the least likely people to see
Jesus. That is why striking appearance is something that fits better. Imagine how they must have wondered what in
the world had just happened to them.They were meeting the Messiah!What were they supposed to do about that? It was striking
to see the appearance of Jesus, which
was totally unlike anything they expected from Herod’s direction. God can take hold of anybody, no matter what
the appearance or story the world has put on them.

I can hear it ringing in my ears,
“Pastor, what I want to tell you is, I got a telegram from God.” She was so sure and then she went on to say,
“I know He protected my soul through all the testing.” You never get to decide when God brings His striking appearance into your life. You can reject it or ignore it, but time and
time again Jesus comes to rescue all people. His timeline may not fit our own, but He comes
with His love, joy, and peace and you know this is nothing our world can offer.
So often we can see our own
misconceptions of what we expect this life to be, or even how we expect God to
handle things. I knew Carol Eckert’s
encounter with God would be striking
to Mt. Calvary as well as to me, but for Carol, His appearance was an Epiphany to go home. The last time she could really talk as we were
planning her funeral service, she hugged and kissed me and said, “I got
something special for you, buddy.” You never forget those striking appearances of Jesus in His people. And while the story of the Epiphany may
contain misconceptions because of manger scenes, childhood stories, and live
nativities, the power of how Jesus appeared to these men was unbelievable. It reminds us that this story will never lose
its power, and that not a single misconception can change the Epiphany of God’s
plan to rescue all people.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

On every
boyhood Christmas Eve, I remember waiting to get my brown bag of candy.The apple would get a quick toss to the
trash, but I dug deep to find my orange, sugar-coated gel candy.Sounds delicious when I say it out loud,
doesn’t it? People who are aware of my food tastes realize that those who
possess a sweet tooth belong to other family members. They will remain nameless for the safety of my
well-being.Regardless, I am rarely
enticed by too many sweets; probably my greater issue has been with liking sweet
drinks. Now I must admit it has been
difficult to appreciate regular tea as opposed to sweet tea.Yet, that cheap piece of orange candy enticed
me every year, which was odd because those bags cost 50 cents at the store.Not that they were out of my price range, there
just was something about eating that candy Christmas night before we returned
home to find out what Santa got us. It
revealed a narrative of my life.

Sometimes we forget details in our
narratives. Over Thanksgiving, our
family was talking about finding a needy family next year to support. I expressed my opinion that we should anonymously
choose a family and begin to learn their story. In our world of giving, knowing the story of
the lives of people helps us to understand what giving truly means. It was in a similar time for us that a piece
of my family’s story came out. It was
the period after the divorce when we were broke, and our church had even put us
on the giving tree. That was a truly
humbling experience for my family. My
wife was shocked to learn this. God has
changed my family narrative by adding Rod, my step-dad, to our lives. It was at that point that I realized that
Mindy and I had lived such different lives.My wife’s family had its lean years, but during most of them she was too
young to remember. When we evaluate the narratives of our lives, we find pieces we
have not contemplated in awhile.

Undoubtedly, the Christmas services
create a whirlwind of different portions of the nativity narrative. Many of you may also have narratives created
in your minds by nativity plays that ended with the presentation of brown bags
of orange candy. You might remember
angels singing, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” You might remember Mary in a blue robe, and
Joseph wearing a brown one. You might
recall seeing little costumed shepherds visiting the new king, while the story
was read by a 5th grader who was super nervous. As we grow up, we return to the Gospel accounts
written by four men who had very unique perspectives on the telling of the
nativity. Over the last couple of days
we heard Luke’s very detailed and precise version. On Christmas Day there was a more general
connection to God’s Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. This weekend we are reminded that this is not simply
some sweet story with cows and sheep keeping our Savior warm; rather this is
the story of a loving Father who came to rescue His people from a world of sin,
pain, and the devil’s attempts (through broken human beings like kings and
others) to destroy that plan. Yet, the
narrative of the nativity would not be stopped by the distractions of this
world. Every detail of God’s narrative
leads us to an important understanding of how Jesus came to rescue all people. And here we are today, experiencing another
Christmas time, which is full of the usual distractions, struggles, blessings, and
love; but most importantly, Jesus. Again
we hear this familiar story that we have heard many times, but this I pray: in your worship, in loving others, in reading,
and in your prayer lives, stop and notice the details of the narrative of the
nativity. I also pray that this account
blesses your life and reminds you of how much Jesus loves you. The story of Jesus’ birth has not changed, but
the kid who once loved the sweet taste of that orange candy has turned into a
man who prays that people are not so distracted that they miss the depth of
Jesus’ love for them. Your story has
changed this year, but God’s promise to send His Son will never change.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

The
most recent conversations in our house have been about time.When is
Christmas coming? How long until my
birthday? When is Easter? Whose birthday is first? This summerI remember conversations that occurred much closer to the
birthdays involved constant countdowns.I actually remember a moment when Mindy looked at me and said, “Enough with
the birthday talk.”She mentioned this
quietly to make sure our kids didn’t hear.But no doubt being an American and a kid creates a desire for immediate
satisfaction.Yet, I am not sure this is
limited only to us in our country.I
wonder if this has been going on through all of time.As I look back across my life, I am shocked
at the things that God has brought me through.I think realizing this only began recently because I often remember
asking God to move more quickly.I
wanted to know where my future would land and what God would do in my
life.At this stage in my life, I relate
more closely with the words from my favorite artist John Mayer’s song, “Stop
This Train.”

I think the most shocking reality in
all of this was discovering how the difficult events in my life came at a time
when I could actually handle them.I was
prepared at 13 to live through the divorce of my parents, and at 21, I was
ready to accept the passing of my father.This last year I lost my grandma, and as I watched the passing of
generations that have taught me faith, I contemplated the legacy that God would
call me to lead for my family and the church to which He has called me. Considering the fact that when I was coming
out of seminary, the idea of being the
sole pastor of a church was scary to me, but God continued to prepare me for
every adventure, struggle, and blessing.

As we stay faithful to our Lord, and
certainly during this Advent season, we see how the traditions of the Church
speak a reality that many of us may not embrace. One of the lines we speak every Sunday from
the Lord’s Prayer is, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” These lines do not fit well with a fast-paced society
which is always concerned about when the next birthday, holiday, or event is
coming. These words are about patience
and trust that God will bring us the appropriate thing in the right moments so we
can handle them. This is fine to say
until we talk about some tragedy or something that brings us pain. As we continue to walk through life, we find
hard realities that shock us, and often we are not willing to jump right up and
say, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” Yet, these lines are at the core of what God
wanted for us. He wanted us to be a part
of His kingdom and He certainly knows His will is best in our lives. Yet, no matter how much we prepare for His
Kingdom and His will, we never seem to be truly ready for it. Much of that has to do with the fact that His
will often remains outside of our normal ways of thinking.

This weekend we will study Isaiah. In our reading, Ahaz was debating what to pray
for. He was wrestling with how to
respond to God. At that moment God was
giving him a glimpse of His saving plan to send Jesus. That saving plan would reconcile all the
turmoil with the people of Israel and the pains Ahaz was facing with sin. None of this changes his reality in that
moment. At the time it just may have
made it harder, hearing that God was going to save the world through Immanuel .
. . but not yet. Thank the Lord we don’t
have to wait for Jesus to come anymore. But we are waiting for when He will come back.
And with every crazy turn in life we see
how He prepares us to see His will mold and shape us. We do know that sometimes “Thy Kingdom comes,”
happens more quickly for some of our loved ones than others. And we, like Ahaz, sit waiting for God’s
kingdom and His return to come into our lives. This Sunday as we prepare to celebrate the birth
of Jesus again, we take time to contemplate what it means to have His kingdom
come and His will be done in our lives.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

There
seems to be an equal mix in our world of the understanding people have of the
idea of fate vs. a structured plan based on our lives that is scripted down to
the very detail.People fall on either
side of the spectrum on this.And let’s
not discount Christians, because while we don’t call it fate, there is
something to be said for theeasy-breezy-plan-in-action vs. the every-detail-put-in-place-theory.

Let
me give you an example.Currently in the
sports world, winter meetings are being held, so it’s time to bring up baseball,
right? I have a friend who plays against
me in fantasy baseball.During the
Dodger/Cardinal series, our friendship became somewhat strained.Let’s just say verbal shots were fired. He was very disappointed to watch his boyhood
team fall to my Cardinals. If you
remember Carlos Beltran, now a Yankee, that’s like jumping ship. Royals, Mets, and Cardinals are all fine, but
you are going to end in the pin stripes; anyway, Carlos voiced his
disappointment with the way the Dodger players expressed their enthusiasm. As Carlos bounced off the wall in Game 1 of
the World Series, my friend’s opinion wasthat it was just karma. I shook
my head as I heard that comment. My
friend is a strong Christian, a Lutheran teacher, in fact, but his
superstitious baseball head takes over in moments like that.He assumed that because Carlos made those
comments that was what caused him to bruise his ribs!Unreal, right?

In a
similar but unique way as my Dad dove more into the non-denominational church
body, I discovered he held this very defined understanding that God was in
control of everything in our lives. Many of the comments dealing with worship,
healing, and even day-to-day events seemed to him and his fellow followers to
be driven by God. I remember him telling
me once that, “God told me to go to the flower shop.” Even as a teenager I
shook my head at this comment. There was
no way I felt that God was defining moments as small as flower shop visits.

Yet,
as we approach Christmas, we see commercials about Santa putting coal into
packages for some people. We have
constant reminders that if we are good we will receive gifts. The underlying message is that good things
come to good people. It is our way of
spreading the idea of fate based upon works. And that, of course, throws a huge monkey
wrench into people’s understanding of why they would even need a Savior if it
is all based upon their good behavior.

All
of this comes together in the reading this week. And, if not examined closely, we could draw the
conclusion that fate and good behavior were driving these stories. When Scripture
speaks of Mary as favored in the eyes of
the Lord, it continues on to define how all things worked together
perfectly to bring the House of David, the promise to Jacob, and two upstanding
citizens into God’s plan. So how do we
understand all of this? How do we argue
against our world’s conventional way to determine who is good and who is bad? How do we look at the face of fate and karma
and challenge those who subscribe to these ideas that God guides us, but we do have
free will? And with all those questions
how do we understand why Mary was chosen, and why do some churches lift her
name higher than others?

These
are good questions that don’t have easy answers; yet, some of the answers are
found in the context of Scripture. In
our preparation for Christmas, a time we call Advent, it is important to
understand God’s very definitive plan. God
was headed in one direction and all of Scripture points to the central message
of our Savior’s birth. These passages
are not speaking about flower shops or where the donkey was fed; instead they
are focused on bringing God’s plan back from the brokenness of sin. In the context of Scripture, we find that Mary
was a woman who received a full amount of grace. That same grace is needed by all of us, but in
Mary’s case that Word incarnate, that grace, was literally sitting in her belly
like Thanksgiving dinner. It is
difficult not to express this as full of
grace or favored. As Scripture unveils all the relationships Joseph
had with the line of David, it also describes the connection with Jacob and the
promise that his house would live forever. Jacob was a man who begged, and wrestled for
the blessing of God. As this story
unfolds, we see something that is neither fate, nor karma, but something that was
God’s absolute plan to bring all things together in order to rescue His people.
And along the way, He chose people to
accomplish this. As Jesus was born, He
used Mary, but in this day and age we must prepare for the moments when He will
employ our unique gifts to fill people with grace. I pray in this season of preparation that the
story of an angel appearing to Mary isn’t just some story you have read a
million times, but is a reminder of the grace God puts right in the middle of
our lives as Jesus comes to rescue us. Keep
your eyes open.You never know when God
is going to use you to drop grace right into the life of some unexpected
someone!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

I was never prepared for the
arrival of any one of my kids.I like to
tell people I should have known that when my mother-in-law had seven kids that
this might not take all that long.I
don’t want to go into too many details that make people uncomfortable, which it
shouldn’t since it is God’s process of procreating, not mine. But this is neither
here nor there, and we move on.I
remember the conversation with my mother-in-law after every birth, “I am not
sure I am ready for another kid.”She
would say, “Well you know how this happens.”The phone would grow silent and I would sit there in my sullen
state.It is not that I would give back
any of my kids, it just didn’t fit the plan—well, my human plan.I mean there I was as youth pastor constantly
busy with youth and then occupied with three little kids as well.The first time I was caught off guard because
I expected that Mindy and I would have more time together.The second time we were moving into our new
home, and back to St. Louis.And the
third time, it just seemed too soon.I
have all my reasons, but they are all human reasons.As the months got closer my fatherly worry
turned to joy.I was beginning to
prepare for three little people that mean the world to me.I can’t imagine my life without any of them,
but in the beginning I was scared, and had all my practical earthly ways of
wanting to tell God that this train was moving too fast.

In both our
Matthew readings this week, we certainly see how God was preparing the world
for its unexpected child.Honestly, in
our sinful state we are never ready for this baby, this Savior, our Jesus. In our sinful state, and with our mortal
minds, we have designed our own plans to make our lives better.We have ideas of what should transpire, and
when it should happen.Honestly, there
is not anything wrong with this thought process until we contradict God.The reality is that God designed us with
minds to make sense of the things in our lives. He provided us with common sense and the
ability to think things through. So
let’s just take a look at our stories.

Here is
Joseph, this dude who is going to get married to his love. And then she turns up pregnant, and he knows
he is not the guy. This is the perfect script
for one of our reality TV shows. You can
imagine the dialogue playing out. “Um, Mary, you are pregnant? That’s not really cool.” Mary responds, “Well, Joseph the Holy Spirit
put this baby in me.” Joseph responds,
“Ok, so now, not only are you lying, but you think I am dumb or you’re delusional.”
Because we hear this story so many times, it eventually sinks in, but stepping
back we see that this was the preparation it took for the Son of God to come as
the unexpected Savior of the world.

In Story Two,
we find a dude who is eating bugs and walking around in a woolly robe. He is telling everyone that Jesus is coming. He is going outside of the church, baptizing
people, and telling everyone that Jesus is his cousin. Not too long before we go, “Well, when you put
it that way.”

See, human
logic would involve advising Joseph to follow the law, divorce her quietly, and
get out of Dodge. Human logic would tell
us not to believe the bug-eating robed dude. But if God’s plan came as an expected event,
it wouldn’t be any fun. No, just kidding!The fact is that we can’t even figure out
what we really need, or the way God can save us. Seminarian Professor Jeff Gibbs puts it this
way: “It contrasts the ways that human
beings think and behave with the unexpected way in which God puts His plan to
save into action.” Again I say, “Well,
when you put it that way.” If God’s plan
and His miracles operated outside of the natural means where He sets things up,
it probably means that we, as humans, don’t understand what He is doing until
His Holy Spirit is inside of us, helping us to understand. And even then we have moments like I shared at
the beginning of my blog where we wonder how God is going to get us through
certain situations.

My prayer for
you this Advent season is that you prepare to expect the unexpected. We believe in God’s saving plan; that is why
we go to church. That is why we strive
to be extraordinary servants. That is
why we seek to follow the B1 discipleship model, and grow closer to Jesus. That means that if what we said in these
stories is true about Jesus, God will shock our human thinking like He shocked
Joseph, and bring us to be prepared for the unexpected. So are you ready for an unexpected Advent? Be prepared!